Tag Archive: platformer


EGM Review: Kirby Triple Deluxe

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May 18, 2014

Kirby and the Beanstalk

Someone at Nintendo sure loves Kirby. Ever since the Pink Puffball first debuted back in 1992 on the original Game Boy (he was white back then because of the system’s limited color palette), if we count collections and spin-offs, the most recognizable figure on Popstar has had 23 games starring him come out over the past 22 years. But what’s even more amazing is that people haven’t gotten tired of him. I believe a large part of this is because the Kirby series always finds a way to make the simple characters shine, and the core gameplay mechanics of sucking up enemies and stealing their powers feel fresh and new each time. Kirby: Triple Deluxe, his 3DS debut, is no different.

Triple Deluxe begins with Kirby resting peacefully at his Dream Land home, when all of a sudden a giant beanstalk (appropriately called the Dreamstalk) erupts from the ground, lifting Kirby’s home and Castle Dedede into the night sky. Assuming King Dedede is up to some new mischief, Kirby floats over to the castle. When he arrives, though, he is shocked by the sight of unconscious Waddle Dees scattered about the place and a new foe, a spider named Taranza, carting King Dedede away in a magical web. Putting past transgressions aside, Kirby knows he has to save King Dedede and stop Taranza.

On the surface, Kirby still has his same classic powers of sucking up enemies and copying some of their abilities. To help him quell this new threat, however, he has several new hats to wear as a result of his copying prowess. Archer allows Kirby to fire arrows in a 360-degree arc; Bell gives Kirby the ability to use a pair of bells as blunt objects as well as to stun enemies with soundwaves; Beetle sees Kirby impale and throw enemies around with a special rhinoceros beetle horn; And Circus has Kirby turn into a clown who can throw flaming bowling pins or balance on a ball to roll over enemies with. The new powers are a lot of fun—and very useful in several situations—but they don’t hold a candle to the single most powerful new skill Kirby can acquire: the Hypernova.

By eating a Miracle Seed, Kirby will gleam like a rainbow in Hypernova form, giving him the ability to eat massive objects in one swallow. From mini-bosses to obstacles like fallen trees, nothing is too big for Kirby to gulp down. The Hypernova form allows Kirby to literally change the terrain around him to fit his needs while continuing on his adventure. This new ability is so powerful, though, Kirby can only use it for the rest of the stage he is on and not carry it with him like his other copy abilities.

Along with these new powers, the 3DS affords Kirby some new gameplay mechanics, especially when it comes to puzzle solving. Taking advantage of the system’s gyroscope, you can manually aim rocket launchers and cannons to destroy enemies and blocked pathways, or slide specially marked blocks around to help Kirby get past traps and the like.

The 3D feature is also a huge boon for Triple Deluxe; Not only does the game look great, with bright pigments punctuating each landscape, but also the 3D is subtle enough most of the time as to not be a distraction. Meanwhile, several puzzles take advantage of the depth of field the 3D provides to create hurdles Kirby has never really had to deal with before. So, by utilizing some 3DS hardware features (and not shoving them down our throats to feel “gimmicky”) and combining them with the classic platforming action the Kirby franchise is known for, Triple Deluxe provides a huge variety of unique challenges for Kirby to tackle.

For all the new things that this game added, there are also a lot of nice little nods to Kirby’s history, scratching that nostalgia itch older fans of the series may have. Not only are there 20 old-school copy abilities this time around—like Wheel and Needle—but also a lot of the bosses are takes on some of Kirby’s most iconic foes. From the return of Kracko to Flowery Woods (a larger, more difficult take on Whispy Woods), many of the bosses, and even a couple of the stages, are nothing but direct nods to what’s come before in the series.

If that’s not enough for you, there is also a new “Keychain” system. In the single player game, you can collect keychains that represent special scenes or characters from Kirby’s entire 22-year history in games. They don’t do anything in particular, but they’re nice to have. If you don’t want to spend time searching for them in the campaign, you can also spend 3DS coins (three at a time) to receive a random pick, or trade unneeded keychains with other players via StreetPass (a great way to get rid of any duplicates).

Not everything is perfect in Dream Land, though. The Kirby games have never really been that difficult, and Triple Deluxe is no different. If it takes you more than eight hours to find every collectible (that isn’t a randomized keychain) and beat the story, I’d be shocked. Also, I never liked the resetting of your lives and powers every time you exit the game. I know, this is something that has gone on for a long time in the series, but it still bothers me as it makes star collecting and 1-ups completely pointless—simply by exiting the game, you’ll be back to having seven lives. I get that it’s one way to get around an issue many other Nintendo platformers run into—the stockpiling of lives—but why not make a game that’s a little harder then?

Of course, Triple Deluxe is named that for a reason: the single-player campaign is just one of three included modes. The first added game mode is Dedede’s Drum Dash, a music rhythm game that has you hit the A button in time with the music as you try to maneuver King Dedede across a bunch of giant bongos. Honestly, this was a bit of a throwaway experience, as neither the interface nor the music are all that good.

The second extra game, Kirby Fighters, is far better—and actually might serve as a nice warm-up to the Smash Bros. games coming later this year. Up to four players can battle it out in the arenas inspired by classic Kirby locales, using special attacks to whittle away opponent’s lifebars while trying to maintain their own by eating food. As a twist, you can select from all of the powers from the single-player campaign to customize your Kirby, opening up possible match-ups such as Ninja Kirby vs. Bell Kirby vs. Beam Kirby vs. Leaf Kirby. This mode is so deep, it even has a single-player arcade ladder system, where you can try to see how fast you can make your way through seven different matches.

In the end, Kirby: Triple Deluxe is another fine addition to the long line of stellar handheld games in the series. A couple of outdated practices and a forgettable mini-game were not enough to stop me from feeling immensely satisfied with my experience after polishing off the final boss. New powers and well-executed use of the 3DS’ peripheral features added just a bit of freshness to keep this old formula working well, giving the Pink Puffball yet another successful debut on another Nintendo console.

Developer: HAL Laboratory, Inc. • Publisher: Nintendo • ESRB: E – Everyone • Release Date: 05.02.14
9.0
Kirby’s debut on the 3DS could not have been better as new powers and puzzles complement classic Kirby gameplay to provide an experience both fresh and familiar to longtime fans.
The Good Inventive puzzles and new powers complement classic Kirby gameplay.
The Bad The resetting of lives and powers each time you exit the game; Dedede’s Drum Dash mini-game.
The Ugly The fact that the main bad guy is based off a spider, but only has six legs, bothers me a lot.
Kirby Triple Deluxe is a 3DS exclusive. Review code was provided by Nintendo for the benefit of this review.
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EGM Review: Constant C

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March 26, 2014

The C stands for charming

Constant C, a puzzle-platformer where players take control of an intrepid robot trying to right science gone wrong, immediately intrigued me when I first saw it at Tokyo Game Show last year. With a couple of simple button presses, gravity and time were mine to command, so the possibilities for countless physics-based puzzles instantly became evident. The only real question: Would the cute little bot’s platforming escapades have enough of a soul to motivate me through the dozens of stages in the final game?

The bot in question—known as Rescue Robot—is designed to activate if his space-station home ever succumbs to some calamity—and, as is quickly relayed via the master AI system, it has. After experimenting with time travel and gravity manipulation, one of the scientists’ devices runs amok, enveloping the entire station in a stasis field that’s frozen everything in place—except you, thanks to inhibitors in your robo-parts that let you walk and jump around. So, it’s fallen to your metal shoulders to see if there’s a way to turn the field off and save the facility.

The biggest hook here is how you can interact with the immobile world. Starting off only able to pull nearby objects out of stasis, you can ride the momentum of boxes that froze while falling to get to another part of a stage. Alternatively, you can clear other boxes out of your path to open up exit doors. As the story progresses, more complex obstacles, such as lasers, moving platforms, and globes, all start to hinder your progress.

Later on, your powers increase and diversify, mirroring the smooth, upward flow of difficulty you’ll see over the dozens of stages set across six levels. These include the gravity skill mentioned earlier, which allows you to turn the world on its axis by either 90 or 180 degrees, and a second stasis-dampening field that allows multiple objects in motion at once. The expansion of your powerset also, unfortunately, opens up your playtime to potentially devolve into a comedy of errors. The gravity abilities allow Rescue Robot to use momentum to fling boxes around corners and into normally unreachable positions, which fast becomes a cornerstone of gameplay.

I found having the 90- and 180-degree rotational shifts relative to your position maddening at times, however—I kept wishing that the buttons were instead assigned to specific walls in the room, and I’d often rotate myself the wrong way, thinking the leftmost wall was still X, even though now it had changed to B after my initial rotation. Yes, this is largely user error, since I kept slipping into a way of thinking that the game obviously wasn’t designed for. To do it the way I would’ve preferred would’ve required a different control scheme, possibly setting up all four directions to the D-pad or the second analog stick. Having to take a step out of the game, though, and methodically plan out my button presses instead of letting them flow naturally was a bit disappointing.

The second stasis-dampening field also comes with problems, but these are clearly on the technical side. Rescue Robot’s presence brings objects into and out of stasis at an ever-quickening rate, and the later levels require more precise timing and movements. As a result, the use of the second stasis field would often culminate in some screen tearing and lag, and it would occasionally lead to frustrating deaths for reasons that weren’t always clear.

The more I played Constant C, though, the more I forgave these shortcomings. Besides solving puzzles, you’re also encouraged to collect special data tubes. Not only do these unlock later stages, but also they allow the master AI to “remember” security footage from before the accident, letting you see what led to the space station’s eventual downfall. These movies include a surprising amount of character development by showing you the fates of your creators and provide an unexpectedly delightful, compelling backstory.

The data tubes also serve another purpose, though. Some levels are simple and straightforward, tempting you to just press on and let the station’s secrets remain undiscovered because the data tubes are tucked away behind near-impregnable defenses that truly push your reflexes. It’s here, in the optional objectives, where the overall difficulty can spike. You could probably rush through the game in about four hours, but if you want to collect all the tubes and have a more fleshed-out and enjoyable story, you’re looking at easily twice as long. If you’re a completionist like me with a penchant for punishment, however, you won’t be satisfied until you collect every last one. Plus, it always felt rewarding when I figured the puzzles out, and the process never felt daunting.

Of course, once you beat the game and collect all the data tubes, there’s not much in the way of replayability. But considering the 100-plus puzzles that push your skills with a controller, charming story, and interesting mechanics, Constant C shows—much like its plucky protagonist—that it has more than enough to overcome its shortcomings.

Developer: International Games System, 5pb • Publisher: Mages, 5pb • ESRB: E10+ • Release Date: 03.12.2014
8.5
Some minor bugs and a lack of replayability can’t hold back Constant C, a puzzle-platformer full of memorable conundrums and surprisingly charming characters.
The Good Inventive puzzles; delightful characters.
The Bad Lack of replayability; controls take some getting used to.
The Ugly Realizing how much time you spent struggling to get those last couple of data tubes.
Constant C is available on Xbox 360 and PC. Primary version reviewed was for Xbox 360. Review code was provided for the benefit of this review.
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EGM Review: Yoshi’s New Island

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This is why dinosaurs are extinct

For many gamers who grew up in the SNES era, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island was nothing short of extraordinary. Not only did the game look and play great, but no one would’ve figured that playing babysitter with Yoshi—a character himself just introduced in Super Mario World­—would be as charming or as addictive as it was. Since then, we’ve visited Yoshi’s Island a couple more times, but those subsequent sequels and spin-offs never quite lived up to that original outing that featured Baby Mario.

Nintendo never stops trying to improve on past iterations, however, so they brought in Takashi Tezuka—the original Yoshi’s Island creative director—to find a way to finally top his 1995 surprise hit. So, with the help of relatively new developer Arzest, Tezuka, now in a producer role, presents Yoshi’s New Island. But you can’t recapture the magic of Yoshi’s Island without the proper team in place, from top to bottom.

Chronologically, Yoshi’s New Island picks up immediately after Super Mario World 2. That dumb stork that let Baby Luigi get kidnapped in the first game realizes that he delivered the Mario Bros. to the wrong house. Taking flight, bundles in beak, the stork begins to search for the Bros.’ proper parents. Kamek, Baby Bowser’s caregiver and head Magikoopa, sees another opportunity to kidnap the twins. He again snatches Baby Luigi, and again lets Baby Mario slip through his fingers and fall to an island below. Luckily for Baby Mario, this happens to be the Yoshis’ second island—their summer home (kind of like those jackasses from my home state of New Jersey who vacation on Long Island). The Yoshis snatch up the future plumber and quickly realize they must unite the twins, no matter the cost.

At the very least, most of the elements you’d expect to be quality in a Nintendo game shine through here. The music’s great—I found myself sitting on the title screen while writing this review simply because I found the theme song that enjoyable. The game also looks very nice, providing the bright colors and stark contrasts that make enemies and allies alike really pop off the screen with the series’ trademark coloring-book art style. If only the same could be said of the 3D effect, which doesn’t do all that much to the world except provide a little roundness to Yoshi and some of the enemies.

Yoshi’s New Island also controls nicely, and Yoshi can use all the same moves from previous games like his stutter-step float and chowing down on enemies to turn them into eggs. He also gets some new moves that provide a little variety compared to the original game, such as making giant eggs out of giant Shy Guys to destroy the environment, or making giant metal eggs out of—you guessed it—giant metal Shy Guys to help him sink to the ocean floor.

As a fan of Super Mario World 2, I really wanted the game to reinvigorate this spin-off series. Instead, Yoshi’s New Island falls far short of its ambition. On paper, it’s as long—and features as much replayability—as the original. Six worlds, each with eight stages, and each with a bevy of collectibles in the form of stars, red coins, and flowers, could keep completionists busy for hours on end. Here, though, the stages are far shorter than in the original Yoshi’s Island, and I completed the game, with most items found, in fewer than 10 hours. This lack of depth in each stage meant I felt no joy of discovery when I came across a new warp pipe or hidden crevasse, no sense of accomplishment when I found every item on a stage. It all just felt like a cheap—and far easier—rehash of the original.

How easy, you ask? This is possibly the easiest Nintendo game I’ve ever played, and I died only a little more than a dozen times. And that’s after I killed myself several times stupidly in the last few stages because I’d become so disenchanted with the entire experience. Before this game, I don’t remember any Mario game feeling like a grind, no matter how simple it may have been at its core. Here, I found myself running into enemies a few times and letting Baby Mario cry until the timer ran down to zero, just to punish the little brat. That incessant whine served doubly as a personal torture for the fact that I ever got my hopes up in the first place.

While on the subject of torture, the game also features a multiplayer. At first, the six minigames (each unlocked after beating a world), sound like they could be a positive element if they proved worthwhile. Instead, they’re the biggest facepalm moment of all (as EGM’s Andrew Fitch can probably attest to, since he helped me test them out). Instead of versus minigames, they’re all co-op-oriented, so you’re just trying to work with a buddy to beat your own high scores over and over again. How sweet and innocent and not at all what I want from a multiplayer minigame. Could it have been that bad for the two players to face off against one another in competitive enemy-eating, coin-collecting, or balloon-popping?

Even the things Yoshi’s New Island gets right feel watered down compared to the original. I loved the boss battles from the first Yoshi’s Island.  I remember Burt the Bashful, Salvo the Slime, and Naval Piranha like it was yesterday. And while the bosses start off well here, they fall into simple patterns and die in a predictable three-hit fashion, which most of the original Yoshi’s Island bosses never did. Three hits to kill not just the first boss, but every boss, just seems so antiquated now, and it’s shocking games so often still adhere to that rule.

The Yoshi transformations remain a lot of fun but falter for different reasons. Like before, our tongue-happy dinosaur pal can become a helicopter and a submarine, but he can now also change into a bobsled, a jackhammer, a mine cart, or a hot-air balloon. But even this is spoiled by the fact that you’re forced to use the 3DS’ gyroscope to control Yoshi through the special sections, making what could’ve been a saving grace clunky and awkward instead.

You can’t blame Nintendo for trying to capitalize on a character that clearly holds a special place in many gamers’ hearts. In retreading ground most of their audience will be familiar with—and doing it less successfully this time around—it just seems they went about it the wrong way. As a platformer, Yoshi’s New Island works fine, but it’s definitely not up to Nintendo’s usually stellar standards.

Developer: Arzest • Publisher: Nintendo • ESRB: E – Everyone • Release Date: 03.14.2014
6.0
It may say “new” in the title, but there’s simply not enough to get excited about in Yoshi’s New Island. Fans of the original will probably be turned off by this inferior and all-too-familiar retread.
The Good Fun boss battles; new eggs and transformations for Yoshi.
The Bad Relies too heavily on nostalgia to cover up gameplay deficiencies.
The Ugly The return of the most annoying sound in videogames: Baby Mario’s crying.
Yoshi’s New Island is a Nintendo 3DS exclusive and was reviewed using a retail code provided by Nintendo.
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EGM Review: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

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March 2, 2014

A rumble in the jungle

I absolutely loved Donkey Kong Country Returns when it released on the Wii more than three years ago. It was a long-awaited return to form for Nintendo’s simian supreme. I’ll admit, however, despite the success Retro pulled off with Returns, I was a bit worried when I heard their next game was a direct sequel. Unlike their previously successful resuscitation of a dormant Nintendo franchise with Metroid Prime, platformers like Donkey Kong Country don’t really have an overarching story tying all the games together. I feared that Retro had already pulled out all the stops, and that Tropical Freeze would be a clone with a new coat of paint. Sometimes when I’m wrong, I’m really wrong.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze sees our beloved banana-hoarding ape and his family celebrating DK’s birthday when a cold wind comes blowing in from across the sea. Suddenly, Donkey Kong’s tropical paradise has become a winter wonderland. New Viking-like enemies, the Snowmads, have appeared out of nowhere to claim Donkey Kong Island for their own, and they promptly send DK and friends out to sea. The Kong Clan must now band together and work their way back across a variety of new and uncharted locales before taking on the Snowmad leader to reclaim their lost home.

Yes, it’s the same “Someone’s stolen DK’s home/horde” story as always. But, then again, Mario’s almost always rescuing a kidnapped Princess Peach, too. You don’t play a Nintendo platformer for the story. It’s simply an excuse to test your skill with a controller over the course of dozens of specially crafted stages.

It’s these stages that make it clear that Retro is just as talented as Nintendo. For one, the precision required is a notch higher than in Returns, and it’ll push you more than you might expect. By the time I got through the entire game, I’d had a great experience, but I also felt like I’d accomplished something by beating a game that was no pushover—a rare feat among modern platformers. The difficulty ramps up smoothly, and I never once felt smothered by a sudden array of collapsing platforms or other hazards. Sure, a few trial-and-error stages caused me to sacrifice some life balloons, but for the most part, the game informs about the dangers ahead and how to bypass them, leaving it up to the player to input the proper commands. For example, a lone Snowmad walks under a giant plant—and the plant then eats the Snowmad. That enemy’s clearly there to say “stay the f*** away from this thing” without you having to be the victim first.

Should any individual stage start to bring on conniptions, though, you can still find ways to overcome the challenge through purchasing items. By spending the plentiful collectible Banana Coins at Funky Kong’s shop, you can accrue more lives, additional air for the underwater segments, extra armor for mine-carts, Banana Juice for invincibility, and more. Most experienced platform players will probably only visit Funky to try their hand at the gumball machine that spits out randomized 3D character models, but it’s a nice touch to offer these options so that players of all skill levels can enjoy the adventure.

While any level can be cleared with Donkey Kong alone, the areas drastically change if he has Diddy, Dixie, or Cranky Kong on his back. Each partner offers special advantages, and they all feel different from each other. Dixie’s helicopter spin gives Donkey Kong a boosted jump, and her slow hover back to the ground affords the chance to take a little extra care when hopping from platform to platform. Diddy’s rocket barrels help DK glide across long gaps more smoothly as well, but he may prove most useful underwater, where he gives a huge speed boost. Finally, Cranky’s expertise comes in helping DK avoid taking damage from spikes with a move that makes him look like Scrooge McDuck in Capcom’s Ducktales games as he hop alongs on his cane. While you may come to rely on a favorite (mine was Dixie), in order to find all the game’s secrets, you’ll need to learn how best to all utilize their unique skillsets and switch between them when necessary.

What’s more, the variety between stages is astounding. Not content to simply offer traditional mine-cart levels, Tropical Freeze instead includes mine-cart rides that take you through a sawmill and see you racing against runaway buzzsaws. Underwater levels don’t just have you swimming in a lagoon; they have you searching for treasure to find the key to unlock the exit. This diversity continues into the “regular” levels, which see DK running through a burning savannah, leaping through a spiraling tornado, and riding a hot-air balloon through the clouds. I honestly never wanted to put my controller down just because I wanted to see what wacky situation I’d be thrown into next.

There’s also one thing I never really expected from Tropical Freeze, but I got it in spades: replayability. If you blow through the main adventure, the game’s about 12 to 15 hours long, but there’s easily enough content here for three times that. Not only do all levels include collecting all the K-O-N-G letters and five to nine puzzle pieces to unlock some awesome concept art, but they also offer time trials to unlock medals. The time-trial videos can be uploaded to a worldwide leaderboard, or you can download other players’ runs to see how they were able to get Gold in a particular level and make their speed-run tricks your own. This process is so seamless, in fact, that I hope more Nintendo games start using it. On top of all this, some stages have multiple exits to unlock branching paths, and it wouldn’t be a true Donkey Kong Country game if there weren’t some hidden worlds.

Despite my gushing, I’ve got a couple of minor gripes with Tropical Freeze. The chaos that is co-op makes playing this mode almost worthless unless you and your partner are perfectly in sync. So, even though the option’s there, this game shines most when played solo. I also wish we would’ve seen more of Donkey Kong’s animal buddies from the SNES days. The returning water levels especially screamed for Enguarde the Swordfish to return, even with the Kongs now able to defend themselves underwater.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is, otherwise, an absolute blast to play. With stunning audio and visuals, combined with gameplay depth and variety, Tropical Freeze has easily cemented itself as one of the best platformers I’ve ever played.

Developer: Retro Studios • Publisher: Nintendo • ESRB: E – Everyone • Release Date: 02.21.14
9.5
One of the best platformers I’ve ever played, Tropical Freeze finds a way to build on the successful foundation of Donkey Kong Country Returns in new and wonderful ways.
The Good New and creative challenges throughout keep gameplay fresh.
The Bad Co-op leaves something to be desired.
The Ugly Thinking of what could have happened to Enguarde, Expresso, and the rest of DK’s SNES buddies.
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is a Wii U exclusive, and was reviewed using a retail copy provided by Nintendo. 
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EGM Review: Rayman Fiesta Run

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November 27, 2013

Everyone loves a fiesta!

I admit that I’m a bit new to the Rayman series, only having played the most recent ones. But once the limbless wonder works his magic on you, it’s hard not to develop an affinity for Michel Ancel’s iconic character. So, when the opportunity arose to take Rayman from the controller to a touchscreen, I was curious.

Rayman Fiesta Run is the follow up to last year’s Rayman Jungle Run and continues in that game’s footsteps, replacing the precision platforming we’ve come to know on consoles with an endless-run dynamic. At first, this worried me greatly, given how tightly Rayman controls on consoles—it’s one of the major reasons I’ve gotten so addicted to his games. After several hours tapping furiously at my iPad, however, I can tell you that the endless-run motif isn’t necessarily better or worse; it’s simply a different way to enjoy Rayman and his world.

In order to get used to this new mechanic, the game strips Rayman of many of his basic moves at the start—all you can do is tap to jump, wall jump, and run. This helps you get into the rhythm you need if you’re going to collect all 100 lums and four Teensies per level. Multiple paths and familiar obstacles to overcome lend even more replayability since the only way to truly beat the game is to collect everything in each level and its twisted “Invaded” counterpart.

Knowing when to tap—and when not to—might sound simple enough, but it’s harder to master than it seems, so it’s great that the game takes it easy early on. But when Rayman starts getting abilities back—like gliding and punching—the difficulty ramps up fast. You must master performing each move in conjunction with multiple taps to ensure that Rayman sails through the world smoothly and collects everything along the way.

Fiesta Run also does a great job of utilizing the phenomenal art and music for which the series is known. Even though the areas are all new, they’ll be familiar enough that fans will appreciate listening to their favorite level music set against recognizable backdrops.

I’m afraid that Fiesta Run isn’t all one big party, though. The game is surprisingly short, even with multiple playthroughs of each level. Seventy-two levels sounds like a lot—and if this were a console Rayman game, it would be—but here you can get through the entire game in only a few hours.

The boss levels also disappoint. Bosses you have to run from are huge and beautifully designed, but they’re never really a threat, since you just keep running. The level layout isn’t really anything different compared to what you’ve played up to that point, either, so the entire concept of a “boss” area is really lost after the level’s brief opening cinematic.

I’m also a bit surprised that the game doesn’t tie back into the console versions. It’s not really a negative, but with so many companies releasing apps with or around a recent release that can unlock costumes or extra items or a minigame when you link them, I’m just surprised I can’t transfer lums from Fiesta Run to Rayman Legends or earn extra trophies or something along those lines. I could use those additional trophies and lums, too, because it’s not easy trying to get to the 11th level of awesomeness or unlock every character in Legends!

Sometimes, though, simple is the way to go—and Rayman Fiesta Run proves that. Its user-friendly control scheme should provide nothing but fun for fans of the franchise, and even if you’re not a huge Rayman devotee, the game’s cheap price tag of $2.99 makes it a worthwhile download if you’re a completionist with a few hours to kill.

Developer: Ubisoft Casablanca • Publisher: Ubisoft • ESRB: N/A • Release Date: 11.7.13
8.0
Simple and to the point, Rayman Fiesta Run follows proudly in its predecessors’ footsteps. The endless-run dynamic is a nice change of pace for fans of the franchise—I just wish the party could’ve lasted longer.
The Good Enough challenge and collectibles to compare favorably to its console brethren.
The Bad Short enough to be blown through in only a few hours.
The Ugly Just missing that last lum before crossing the finish line.
Rayman Fiesta Run is available on Google Play, Amazon App Store, and iOS devices. Primary version reviewed was for iOS devices, specifically using an iPad 2.
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Capcom Hypes Up DuckTales: Remastered with Limited Edition Gold NES Cartridge

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September 5, 2013

In anticipation of next week’s release of DuckTales: Remastered on PSN, Nintendo eShop, and Steam, and next month’s release on XBLA, Capcom sent a special package out to remind some of us of those great childhood memories we might’ve had playing the game.

At first we here at the EGM office thought it was just a lunchbox with the sweet art for DuckTales: Remastered plastered on the front. A fine piece of swag in and of itself. But, as I am wont to do with most packages that come into the EGM office, I gave it a good hearty shake before placing it down and realized there was something inside the tin bin.

Upon opening it, to our joyful surprise, we found the contents of the box were possibly as valuable as the whole of Scrooge’s moneybin. The lunchbox had been holding a limited edition golden NES cartridge for DuckTales (ours was numbered 107 of 150). Now, we don’t know if the cartridge is actually a legitimate, playable cartridge, but it has contacts and is well put together enough that we at least vow to bring an NES into the office tomorrow to try it out.

Along with the cartridge came a certificate of authenticity, several Duckburg themed coupons similar to those that you might find in an old school NES box, and advertisements from Capcom to check out some of their other classic games like MegaMan, Bionic Commando, and Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins.

You can check out the fully laid out contents of the box in the pictures below. Woo-oo!

UPDATE:

The NES cartridge does indeed work after some tests (and several NES’s) and is the 1989 version of the game.

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EGM Review: BattleBlock Theater

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April 7, 2013

Pussycats Galore

I’ll admit, I’ve always been a little slow to hop on the Behemoth bandwagon. I didn’t play Alien Hominid until it hit XBLA in 2007, and I didn’t get into Castle Crashers until 2011. Although I was late to the party, I loved both of those games, so when I heard that BattleBlock Theater, The Behemoth’s long-awaited next title, had finally been given a release date, I made sure I was ready and waiting for it to drop.

BattleBlock Theater begins as you and a bunch of your best friends—including your bestest friend in the whole wide world, Hatty Hattington—pile into a boat and sail off to parts unknown looking for adventure. After you sail and have some carefree fun for several days, a massive storm hits and sends your ship spiraling off course and into a long-forgotten island. When you come around, your character—customizable in regards to color and head shape—realizes that Hatty’s gone missing.

As you begin to explore the island, you discover a dilapidated theater and enter, hoping to find Hatty. But as soon as you set foot inside, you realize this is no ordinary theater. In fact, it’s been taken over by hundreds of massive cats with an affinity for fine technological devices and wreaking mayhem and murder upon unsuspecting travelers that stumble across their nefarious dungeon of doom. For reasons unknown, Hatty has become the man in charge, now sporting a possessed top hat instead of the friendly smile that once adorned his face. Hmm. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess it has something to do with the possessed hat.

You and your friends must travel through eight worlds full of buzzsaws, laser beams, spears, spikes, and kitties who have a knack for making things blow up, all in the hopes of bringing Hatty back to his senses and escaping from this macabre deathtrap. As you traverse each of the game’s nearly 100 levels, you’re required to collect three jewels to unlock the exit, but you can also nab surplus gems to spend on character unlocks, as well as yarn to bribe the death-kittens into giving you better, more powerful weapons.

Those of you who are familiar with The Behemoth’s work will immediately recognize their trademark cartoon art style and quirky sense of humor. Many of BattleBlock’s laughs come courtesy of the game’s narrator, who spews canned, campy one-liners that help give each level the feel of a never-ending game-show parody.

When you dig past the hundreds of collectible heads for your characters, the bells and whistles of the presentation, and the strong pedigree the game has to live up to, you’ve got a deliciously punishing, fun platformer. In fact, I was often reminded of Super Meat Boy—both with regard to difficulty and the tightness with which you can control your character. And that challenge only gets worse on Insane mode, which features remixed versions of levels packed with even more traps vying to send you to an untimely death.

Unlike some of those more diabolical platformers, though, BattleBlock Theater shines brightest when playing with a friend. I really ought to dedicate this review to my girlfriend, whose willingness to lie down on a bed of spikes to offer me a makeshift platform helped make this review possible. I think this game is the only situation where it’s socially acceptable to look a loved one in the eye and say, “Go kill yourself.” While I still had a lot of fun playing alone, it was solving the more co-op oriented puzzles together that kept smiles plastered on our faces for the nearly eight-hour campaign.

A couple of downsides to playing cooperatively do pop up, however—namely the camera and spawning system. If one player gets too far ahead, the camera pulls way back, making it difficult for either player to see what’s happening onscreen. And when one character dies, where they respawn seems to be completely random. Sometimes they’ll appear right next to their teammate; other times they’ll be rocketed back several checkpoints, forcing them to deal with that lovely camera issue again. Aside from these minor gripes, though, there’s nary a fault to be found.

But the story is only the beginning of BattleBlock’s inescapable charm. There’s also a level editor, where you can craft your own gauntlets to test your friends’ skills and indulge your inner kitty. Want to set up a stroll in the park? How about a punishing series of pitfalls accompanied by lasers dealing death from above? The choice is yours.

Then there’s the biggest surprise of BattleBlock Theater: its versus options. With nearly a dozen game modes spread between 2-on-2 competitions and 4-on-4 contests that pit human players against a team of bots, BattleBlock offers enough variety to keep things fresh for many long hours after you’ve finished up the story. From King of the Hill to Capture the Flag, BattleBlock’s take on some classic versus modes, along with a few original to the game, had me and the other EGM editors rolling on the floor laughing. (Props to Intern Chris for taking home the most MVP awards, even if Associate Editor Josh Harmon and I routinely wiped the floor with him and News Editor Eric L. Patterson.) Things can definitely get a bit chaotic—in fact, they almost always do—but you’ll likely be having too much fun to care.

All in all, this is The Behemoth’s best game to date, and fans should take solace in knowing the incredibly long wait between titles was well worth it. And if you’re a newcomer who feels like it’s finally time to jump on the Behemoth bandwagon, I can’t think of a better game to start with.

Developer: The Behemoth • Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios • ESRB: T – Teen • Release Date: 04.03.13
9.0
Between taking in the hysterical story, trying your hand at level creation, or just blowing up some buddies in versus mode, most every gamer will find something to love about BattleBlock Theater. Whether played alone or with friends, The Behemoth’s latest is an absolute blast that’s well worth the price of admission.
The Good Between its story and versus modes and its level editor, this is one of the deepest downloadable games out there.
The Bad The camera and spawning system in story co-op.
The Ugly You ever seen an entire island run by cats? Trust me. You don’t want to.
BattleBlock Theater is an Xbox 360 (XBLA) exclusive.
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EGM Review: LittleBigPlanet PS Vita

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October 2, 2012

Sack it to ya!

Marking the fourth entry into the series (not counting its Karting counterparts), LittleBigPlanet PS Vita sees the franchise go portable for a second time, with this obviously being its first venture onto the PS Vita. Hoping that the Vita’s unique touch screen features could add a bit of freshness to the franchise, this is still a by the book LittleBigPlanet experience. From being introduced to a world of pure imagination by Stephen Fry’s dulcet tones, to the content creation engine that allows you to create your own levels and share them on PSN, the core of LittleBigPlanet remains perfectly in tact on the Vita.

The single player story this go around is that Sackboy (or Sackgirl) has been tasked with saving the world of Carnivalia from a once great puppeteer whose heart has turned black after being booed off the stage. Looking to exact revenge, he steals the souls of the creatures in this world and have their shells wander aimlessly around, except when he commands them to do his bidding, making everyone his puppet now.

In order to overcome this new foe, your Sackperson must traverse nearly 50 stages across several different, exotic locales with their own unique themes. And in each of these stages are never before seen puzzles, many of which take advantage of the Vita’s touch screens. These puzzles require you to push, pull, or tap objects in and out of perspective in the 2.5D world in order to progress, or pilot your Sackthing through various obstacle filled courses.

And along with these new puzzles are brand new mini-games and challenges that will require you to use the Vita’s special features even more, like turning the Vita on its side and playing a whack-a-mole like game with your fingers or placing blocks, like in Tetris, as you try to build the biggest tower possible. These games also take full of advantage of the ‘Pass ‘n’ Play’ feature incase you want to play these mini-games locally against friends.

Unfortunately, as fresh as the touch screen gimmick may make some aspects of the game play, it also takes directly away from some of the platforming that the single player is known for. When there are pure platforming sequences, they are just as spectacular as ever. But the touch screen required jumps become irritating very quickly as you try to hold blocks in place with your fingers on one hand while moving your Sackperson around with the other. This decimates any kind of pacing that tries to develop as you move through each stage. It also made the obstacle courses painfully difficult as your fingers often got in the way of the actual screen and you couldn’t see where you were going.

The touch screen also faltered when trying to place stickers or objects in the world or the content creator. Using your fingers to move pieces around, rotate them, or change their size, didn’t feel nearly as responsive or accurate as the experience you get with the buttons on LittleBigPlanet’s console versions.

Another aspect that had me grinding my teeth was the tutorials. At this point, nearly every gamer out there knows how to jump, run, and perform basic platforming actions. To waste 20% of the game’s stages on teaching me how to do core functions was a waste. When was the last time Mario had a tutorial? It only made sense with the content creator, as that is still a new and complicated enough feature to warrant refreshing players new and old.

At the end of the day, if you’re a LittleBigPlanet fan then this portable version is everything you’d expect from a game in this franchise and is easily one of the better Vita titles out there. It’s light humor and content creator is all still in tact and there is little lost from the last console version to this portable one. A few of the newer features, although they take advantage of the touch screen gimmick better than most Vita games, still can cause the game play to feel clunky at times though. A must have for fans of the franchise, but if you’re looking for this to sell you on the Vita itself, this isn’t that game.

SUMMARY: Although one of the better Vita games out there, the touch screen gimmicks still get in the way sometimes of the franchise’s core values.

  • THE GOOD: Same platforming and content creation that defines the franchise
  • THE BAD: Too much hand holding in the early levels
  • THE UGLY: Way too many soulless little dolls…creepy

SCORE: 7.5

LittleBigPlanet PS Vita is a PS VITA exclusive. 

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EGM Review: Joe Danger: Special Edition

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December 14, 2011

The Man Without Fear

Whenever there is an accident, our voyeuristic nature has it so that we can’t help but want to look at it and even if we turn away, we often look back just to make sure we saw what we thought we saw the first time. Couple this with the spectacle of someone willingly putting themselves in harm’s way and many people can’t help but be attracted to watching daredevils perform their death defying stunts. It is why even though he didn’t perform for years before his passing in 2007, guys like Evel Knievel were still often part of the popular vernacular for the stunts they pulled in the 60s and 70s.

Inspired by those great stuntmen, we have Joe Danger, another forgotten legend that could jump buses, shark tanks, and canyons with the best of them. Well, Joe wants to come out of retirement and prove to the world he’s still got it and unlike many of those real-life daredevils, any accidents that Joe may have can be fixed with a simple press of the reset button (which will likely occur often).

Joe Danger: Special Edition is an interesting game in that it combines a pair of gaming genres rarely seen working in conjunction with one another: platforming and racing. In the Career Mode, you take Joe over several dozen courses littered with stuntmen staples like jump ramps and shark tanks and a bevy of items that look like they were taken from a Sega yard sale with Sonic the Hedgehog style loop de loops and spring bumpers. When you put these all onto one track, you’ll have the time of your life performing Superman handlebar stunts and wheelies while trying to clear these ridiculous courses, re-establish Joe as an entertainer for the ages, and even take down his rival stuntmen in Team Nasty. And you’ll do all this while trying to earn points and collect items to unlock more and more tracks to prove Joe’s dominance.

This item collection, and the control with which you can control your bike in mid-air, gives these rather linear racing levels some platforming traits and introduces a strong dose of replayability as it will likely require you multiple playthroughs on many of the levels to collect all the items or beat the time to win the race as it is near-impossible to do both on a single run. Of course, having to play multiple levels over and over again could become tedious and frustrating for all but the most die-hard of completionists and may start to feel like a chore during long game sessions.

But there is so much more to this “Special Edition” compared to the version that was released last year for PSN. First off, the DLC that was added to the original game later on like an online versus mode and the ability to upload custom designed levels to share with friends now comes standard with this version of the game. There are also a series of special “laboratory” levels where the game’s designers added some extra wacky challenges to courses they specially designed for the Special Edition for XBLA to really push your platforming and racing skills to the test should the career mode or level creator begin to bore you.

At the end of the day, Joe Danger: Special Edition is a very solid game with great physics, easy to pick up and play controls, and more than enough levels and collectibles to really drive those hardcore completionists up a wall. The only major knock on the game is that it does become tedious if you play it for long stretches and the challenge of trying to collect all the items in a level begins to feel forced onto you as your progress later and later into the game. But if you have an extra 1200 MSP lying around, this game is definitely worth a test drive for its uniqueness alone.

SUMMARY: A unique blending of genres and interesting new modes added to the XBLA version make this a solid buy, even if the luster wears off quickly.

  • THE GOOD: A unique blending of genres makes for an entertaining experience
  • THE BAD: Repetitive obstacles and challenges can make the game feel like a chore at times
  • THE UGLY: How you look after falling into the shark tank

SCORE: 8.0

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Don’t Come Out of the Shadow

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February 27, 2011

Originally Published: February 27, 2011, on my StrongProtector profile on GiantBomb.com

Often in games, shadows are nothing more than minor details we look at when deciding how good the graphics are. But what if the entire story of a game revolved around these barely acknowledged details?

Lost in Shadow from Hudson Entertainment begins at the top of a mighty tower that stretches far beyond the clouds. There, someone who looks like a cheap Darth Vader wannabe strikes a boy in chains with a sword and the boy’s shadow slips away. The cloaked figure then takes the shadow and flings it as far as he can from the top of the tower. The shadow, after landing, longs to be whole, and must now manipulate light in order to ride the shadows of his surroundings back up to the top of the massive tower and find out why the cloaked figure would do such a thing as separate a boy from his shadow.

I remember playing a demo of Lost in Shadow at the 2010 New York ComicCon and I absolutely fell in love with that early concept. Of course, I only had the opportunity to play the handful of tutorial levels, but it was enough to get me excited about this game, which makes it even tougher for me now to see it end up wallowing in mediocrity.

The concept of Lost in Shadow is a great one and turns your typical platformer on its head. Only with the assistance of a little fairy friend that helps lost shadows called a Spangle, can you interact with the real world and move around loose pipes, steel girders, and the light sources in the room in order to help lay out the shadow path that will allow you to climb up to the next floor of the tower. On top of this, you must also collect three Monitor Eyes per level that will allow you to remove shadow barriers at the end of each floor that are trying to keep you from advancing further. This pushes you to not only try to move through each level, but explore it thoroughly as you do so as it is the only way to find the Monitor Eyes.

It wouldn’t be much of a game though if you were just moving around the environment and constantly climbing. No, the shadows of horrific creatures like giant spiders and lizards, shadow turrets, and other traps line the tower’s floors and will require you to find a weapon to help vanquish these terrors as you continue your quest for unification.

Unfortunately, there really isn’t much to this game once you get past the first ten floors and learn the concepts you’ll use throughout the game because you’ll start to realize there is a pattern. That repeats for another 60 floors. Although the concept of Lost in Shadow is very original, the gameplay and level design is actually very uninspired.

You’ll find yourself having to solve the same puzzles and traps over and over again that by the time you even move halfway up the tower, you might just give up due to boredom. The game will probably only take most gamers about ten hours to beat, but it becomes such a chore to constantly have to repeat yourself, that it will feel like you’re putting in a lot more time. Never mind the fetch quests dropped on you later in the game that force you to then backtrack throughout the tower.

If you’re a completionist, you’ll want to pull your hair out by the time you’re done with Lost in Shadow as you’ll think you’re finally getting close to finishing and them some other inane and repetitive task is given to you and you’ll just end up screaming “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!” Okay, so I admit I’m a bit of angry gamer, but Lost in Shadow will test the patience of even the most hardcore gamers out there.

And it’s not just the gameplay that is dull and uninspired. The graphics for the game are a mixed bag. The handful of cutscenes throughout the game are nicely done and the shadow effects are great especially considering they make up the game’s entire concept, but the level backgrounds are just bland with the same handful of tones used throughout most of the game. It gets really tiresome to just look at the same green, blue, and yellow walls over and over. Combine this with the steampunk wet dream inspired foreground of rustic steam pipes and silver gears and there is nothing that really screams out visually in Lost in Shadow.

The graphics aren’t nearly as bad as the sound though. No voice acting whatsoever and the same monotonous theme that plays throughout all the game’s levels will probably give you a headache by the time you’re only a couple of hours in. The only thing that had less effort go into it than the sound for this game was the level area names like “Factory” followed up shortly thereafter by… “2nd Factory”.

One saving grace at least for Lost in Shadow is that the controls are pretty tight. Your shadow seems to sail on certain jumps and then fall short on others and the game can be a little finicky when it comes to performing actions like moving blocks or pulling levers, but for the most part everything seems to operate as it should. It’s just the fact that you have to perform the same motions with no variety whatsoever over and over again in the game’s 70-plus levels that will wear on you.

When all is said and done, Lost in Shadow was a terrific concept that hoped that would be enough to make it a great game. Too many cut corners though combined with a lot of unnecessary and repetitive levels makes this one of the more painful 10 hour games I’ve ever played. If your curiosity gets the better of you, then maybe Lost in Shadow is worth a rental, but I’d think twice before I added this permanently to my collection, even with it only being a budget title priced at $39.99.

Ratings are based on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best.

Graphics: 6.5: The bland colors get repetitive after a while and there is really nothing that jumps out about the steampunk designs of this 2.5D world, but since most of the game is done in shadows and bland colors anyway, it’s not that big a deal.

Sound: 4.0: No voice acting whatsoever coupled with 70-plus levels of the same instrumental music repeated over and over again will drive you absolutely insane.

Plot/Plot Development: 7.0: An original idea can only carry you so far. The game is so drawn out over the repetitive levels that although the beginning of the game is very intriguing, you’ll lose interest too much over time. Bonus points for trying something different though.

Gameplay: 5.0: A very simple puzzle platformer with the enemies thrown in seeming more like an after thought. The controls are very tight, but the puzzles are so repetitive you might fall asleep.

Replay Value: 1.0: Any game that you can walk away from and be happy never playing again or finishing is rare for me, but I wish I didn’t have to finish this game for a review. I want most of the ten hours I put into this game back.

Overall (not an average): 5.0: An original idea can only take a game so far and although the concept for Lost in Shadow was indeed special, so many other cut corners really take this down to the point where even as a budget title I cannot recommend this beyond a cheap rental if your curiosity gets the better of you.

 

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